Ground to a halt

Gears 5's opening act is peak Gears, a tutorial-ish opening mission followed by scope-setting exposition that quickly gives way to a bombastic non-stop thrill-ride through multiple set-piece moments overflowing with bullets and explosions.

Then, the game slows way down for a jarringly mellow walk-around-town sequence. You can eavesdrop on NPCs' idle chatter, and collect a bunch of nigh-meaningless collectibles, until you eventually find out that Jimmy Smits was re-cast in a narratively-weighty sequence that finally plots an interesting character arc for Kait.

And then, surprise! It's an open-world game now. Your mini-crew of Kait and Del hop on a skiff with a windsail, and cruise around a ... mostly-empty ice-scape, to freely pursue your choice of ... a very short list of side-quests.

Suddenly the meaningless noise back in town makes sense: those NPCs were probably going to be quest-givers, maybe with objectives like "destroy 3 Swarm hives" or "collect 10 Scion helmets." One of their chatter topics about some runaways does relate to a couple of optional objectives.

But, for whichever assortment of reasons, it's clear that a larger plan for sidequest content never came together; and the map that we're left with is just a dull navigation chore. (The few quests that did make the cut aren't very enthralling, either -- just brief fights that're rewarded with a minor robot-helper upgrade.)

Once you finish the primary objective in ice land, you're then transported to ... a sandy desert map, along with your skiff. Rinse and repeat. At least, this time, your fireteam grows and there's some fun traveling banter.

The game's final act is another linear series of shootouts, but shorter than the opening, even padded up by several not-really-interactive scenes. And a bafflingly-late narrative choice that comes out of nowhere and has no meaningful consequences. Why is this even here?

Gears 5's reach definitely exceeded its grasp. The open areas have excellent visual design, and it's impressive that they work technologically, but scant sidequests and a total lack of sandbox content makes them feel incredibly empty. And while it continues to do fine with linear encounters, these peak early and run out of steam by the end.

Not to mention, Kait's character growth is once again drip-fed and left dangling until the next game.

Better than: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Not as good as: Borderlands 3, Gears of War 4
About as good as: Rise of the Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider (2013), granted my praise for the latter did not age well.

Progress: Finished the campaign on Intermediate.